“This has been such a flat day”, I said to Tom as we pedalled out of Turin. We had started just outside of Carmagnola and had managed to make it to Turin early for breakfast. It was an extravagant affair…we pulled up outside an ‘Intermarche’, Europe’s finest small supermarket; sat down next to a bin in front of our bikes and feasted on our fresh tomato flatbread. We had made it. Thinking we had done the worst of the climbing the previous day. Little did we know what was in store for us.

After pedalling sedately around Turin for a short while and having our pictures taken in front of some minis -thinking we were hilarious. Yes Italians drive minis in Turin; it’s not just the English stealing gold bars. We departed, keen to make good miles. The first 30km were almost completely flat “this is the life”, we thought…